


Wolfstar Books

by bookspark



Category: Harry Potter - Fandom
Genre: M/M, Muggle AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-02-27
Updated: 2018-02-27
Packaged: 2019-09-01 09:27:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,655
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16762423
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bookspark/pseuds/bookspark
Summary: Remus and Sirius own a bookshop that’s the local haven for LGBTQIA teens. One day, a black haired, green eyed teen walks in...





	1. Chapter 1

  
  
(A non-magic AU inspired by a post I saw ages ago. If you know the post, please tag me!)  
  
It started with a bookshop. Remus had always loved to read, finding it an escape from the health issues that had plagued him since he was small. He had fond memories of wasting hours in the local bookstore/cafe while his parents ran errands and of the reward of a new book after particularly hard doctors appointments and surgeries.  
  
Remus’ love of reading reignited Sirius’ and soon they were sharing books and swapping series and getting generally excited about books together.  
  
After a time, once they realized they had feelings for the other, kisses and make out sessions were had over books that had been laid on laps and then slowly slid to the floor, forgotten briefly in the heat of the moment.  
  
Books are what brought them together and once they left boarding school and finished college, they opened a bookstore. The cafe that was on the ground floor of their building closed and so Sirius used the money they’d inherited from their uncle for startup costs.  
  
They named it Wolf Star Books.  
  
A simple play on their names that they’d come up with one late night while Remus was dealing with painsomnia. Sirius huddled on the end of the bed, arms around their knees, desperately trying to distract Remus from the waves of pain wrecking his body.  
  
_“So, you know you’re named Wolf Wolf?” Sirius had said, setting their chin in on their knees.  
  
Remus had looked at him through eyes glazed with pain. “I’m… what?” he’d asked, before hissing in a breath with a wince.  
  
“Remus is one of the wolf brothers that helped start Rome…” Sirius said and trailed off at the look Remus gave them. “Anyway, and Lupin is wolf in Latin. So…”  
  
“Wolf Wolf, heh,” Remus said, a soft chuckle escaping. “Well… if that’s me… you’re… Dog Star… Black?”  
  
Sirius’ bark of laughter made both of them stiffen and see if they’d woken the other boys in the dorm. After enough snuffling, and a few quiet moans from Remus, it was determined they hadn’t woken anyone. Sirius looked back at Remus, a grin on their face. “Wolf and Dog Star… it could be a spy novel!!”_  
  
_Remus rose an eyebrow at Sirius, “No one… would write… a novel… about a sick… bi kid…” Remus closed his eyes, grimacing as the wave of pain that had been building crashed over him.  
  
“Remus?” Sirius said, and reached for the other boy. They stopped, knowing that Remus couldn’t stand to be touched at times like this. Couldn’t even handle the press of clothes against him; wearing only boxer shorts, back slick with sweat. Making a fist, Sirius tapped it on their own leg and leaned back against the footboard. “Yeah, well, they don’t write books about a kid whose not sure if their a girl or a boy either.”  
  
Remus huffed and slowly reached out a hand, gently touching Sirius’ bare foot. “I told… you. That… doesn’t matter…”  
  
Sirius sighed and rolled their eyes, “Says you…” they mumbled and placed their head on their knees.  
  
Remus watched Sirius, uncertain what to say. Eventually, he opened his mouth, about to tell Sirius it’s okay to be unsure, when another round of pain sweeps over him and he gasps, balling his hand into a fist.  
  
Sirius head shoots up, eyes wide. “Shite, Rem,” they said, pushing long black hair out of grey eyes. “Er…So, anyway, Wolf Wolf and Dog Star Black, partners in crime? Is that better?”_  
  
_Remus snorted, but doesn’t open his eyes; the pain is still rolling through his body. “Too…long…” he said softly. He breathes out steadily, forcing himself to relax his fists and tensed muscles._  
  
“Right,” Sirius said, trying to ignore the way Remus was panting and his face was scrunched up in pain. “So… Wolf and Dog, private eyes?”  
  
Remus huffed his displeasure, and flexed his hand, concentrating on not fisting the sheets in his hand. “Wolf…Star… mischief… makers…”  
  
“Ohhhh….” Sirius breathes, voice quiet in awe. “Oh, that’s so perfect Remus…”  
  
And so, they opened a café and bookstore under their apartment. Sirius baked and Remus was (mostly) in charge of the book orders. They were in a college town, and close enough to campus that they were soon extending their hours. They got a wifi router, and stayed open until 3am, coming back at five to start baking and prepping to open at 6 for the commuters.  
  
Slowly, it became known that Wolf Star Books was a SAFE place for any confused, questioning, scared, or lonely LGBTQ+ teen or college student.  
  
It started with Remus putting a small pink triangle in the bottom of front window. Smaller than the size of a cheap mobile, he knew that it wouldn’t draw too much attention, but if someone was looking for it… well that was another matter.  
  
A few weeks later, a teenage girl a little younger than them came into the store. Remus had noticed her walking by the window occasionally before finally coming in one rainy day and ordering tea and one of Sirius’ orange cranberry scones.  
  
She came back the next day, and the next. On the fourth day she stayed until closing. This was when they closed at 10, having not yet realized some students would kill for a quiet and calm place to write that paper the night before it was due. When she was waiting by the door when they opened at 6am the next day the two realized they might be on to something.  
  
She brought her girlfriend the next week, both of them asking about books with lesbians in them, hungry for books with people like them in them.  
  
Two became four which became ten and soon Remus changed the pink triangle out for a mini rainbow flag. Before long Sirius put a flagpole outside the door and rainbows flew proudly from it every day.  
  
One day, about five years in, Jack asked to stay the night. He was a kid who should have been in college, but instead had been kicked out of his home when he came out at 16. He’d been on the streets every since, couch surfing or working the streets in turn. Remus took one look at the kid’s dark circle under his eyes and said yes. Then goes to get Sirius and let him know.  
  
Sirius was a little more hesitant, before catching a glimpse of look that so reminded them of their teen years.  
  
“If we’re missing anything in the morning, you won’t be welcome back.“ “Sirius!”  
  
“What?”  
  
“Jack’s been coming here for over a year! He won’t do anything,” Remus says and goes upstairs for a blanket and pillow.  
  
When Sirius comes down a few hours later to start baking, Jack wakes up and helps.  
  
Jack stays. Soon he’s working for them, and saving for a place.  
  
When he leaves, Remus and Sirius realize that this is it. Making a small difference in kids lives.  
  
A few weeks pass before Jack shows up, a kid who goes by "Fish” behind him.  
  
It’s Fish’s birthday today. Eighteen, and so their parents have kicked them out. Jack was wondering…  
  
“Of course,” Sirius says, noticing the same pronouns they use.  
  
Remus smiles and asks; “You’re willing to work, right?”  
  
Jack and Fish both assure the men Fish is, and so they have their second one.  
  
They come by word of mouth. Always vouched for by one or more of the regulars.  
  
They only help one kid at a time. Help them with a warm place to sleep, baking and customer service experience, and eventually they get back on their feet and move on.  
  
They come back though. Every June, they all show up, along with the regulars, for the city’s Pride festival. Sirius and Remus check up on them, see that they are still doing okay, and let them know they are loved.  
  
It doesn’t always work.  
  
There was the kid who tried to steal from the register, and the one who couldn’t stay sober, and the one who did great but couldn’t stay on his feet once they got him there. He disappeared a few months in. The next time they saw him it was as a news piece about a dead body the police found.  
  
Remus and Sirius focus on the good ones, on the kids they help.  
  
Until one day they find a teenager on the stoop.  
  
“Someone told me you’re a safe place,” the wet and shivering teenager says.  
  
Remus bring them in as Sirius makes them a cuppa. Wrapped in a warm blanket, she tells them of parents who are long dead, and foster parents who refuse to use the right pronouns and force her into sports, to “man up”.  
  
It then that Remus and Sirius realize she’s 15.  
  
And its with sinking hearts they realize they have to call Child Services. When Remus excuses himself and leaves to go to the "bathroom”, she runs.  
  
She’s out the door and gone, before Remus has even gotten through to someone. He hangs up when he realizes neither of them got her legal name.  
  
She comes by every few weeks.  
  
She never comes in, only taking the food they give her with wide eyes, ready to bolt. She never does give them her legal name.  
  
Many helpers, and three years, later she shows up again.  
  
Eyes more haunted, and with he physical scars to prove it, she asks if the spare bed is open.  
  
Tonks, a lesbian with bright pink hair who was currently using the bed, gets up. “Yes, it is.”  
  
"Tonks!” Remus says, shocked.  
  
“I was just pissed at me girl,” Tonks says and shrugs. “If she’s still pissed, then I’ll go stay with Charlie. S'fine, really.”  
  
She stays for a few months. Remus helps her finish school, Sirius teaches her to bake.  
  
When she leaves, first month’s deposit already made, and enrolled in college, they add another one to their "win” column.  
  
They think of her, coming to them so young as she did, as a fluke.  
  
Foster care doesn’t even cross their minds until years later, when a black haired, dark skinned teen with green eyes walks in late one night.


	2. Part 2

It was a bitterly cold night in January when Harry entered their bookstore. (And it was Harry, they were sure of it).

He was dressed in dark skinny jeans, a black shirt, and he had a well worn black leather jacket on.

This late at night, it’s Sirius who’s working; they’ll shut the store down in an hour, clean and straighten, and then start the baking for the morning crew.

At first they thought it was James, a friend from boarding school they lost contact with years ago. But no, James’ eye were deep brown. And this kids eyes were green.

“Green just like Lily” Sirius will tell Remus later, eye wide over a cup of tea.

Sirius tried to play it cool, asking Harry and the other kid if they needed anything, to which they answer no.

Harry is with Blaze, one of the stores “frequent flyers”. Teens on the street, often sex workers, without any stable place to live or adults in their lives.

Sirius desperately hoped Harry wasn’t taking a break from “work”, but as he watched the two of them, Harry seemed far too comfortable with Blaze for it to be anything else.

Playing it cool be damned, Sirius walked over to the two, interrupting a conversation about whether to go back out and work or not with the weather.

"Don’t,” they interrupt and shrugged away the two’s skeptical looks. "Look, Blaze, the spare bed’s open and it’s cold as balls outside. No one’s going to be out looking for someone tonight.”

“Spare bed?” Harry asked, and shook head head. "Look, no offense mate, but I don’t do threesomes.”

Sirius quickly shook their head, "No, Harry-“ And Harry’s eyes went wide, and he ignored Blaze’s explanation of what Wolf Star Books is to kids like them.

"How do you know my name?!” Harry shouted, jumping to his feet and backing up. "What do you know?”

Sirius, kicking themselves, took a step back, trying to gain control of the situation. “Nothing I’m sure of, just that you look like someone- James, that I used to be friends with.”

"How? No. No no no,” Harry said, backing up and then making a run for the door.

"Sorry, Sirius,” Blaze said as he ran after Harry. "He’s skittish!” Sirius ran after the two, and stood in the doorway as the tall teen ran after the other.

"Bring him back, Blaze!” they called into the night.

Harry doesn’t come back for almost two weeks.

Remus and Sirius are beside themselves with worry, but manage to use the time productively.

They research James and Lily, and what they find saddens them both. James had been one fourth of their group back in boarding school.

So close with Sirius that when Sirius’ family kicked them out for being gay (they weren’t about to bring up the gender issues) James’ family was where they’d spent the last few breaks.

After school though, it was hard to keep up with each other. There were phone calls, and letters and postcards, of course.

But James had gone to school down in London, he was going to be a lawyer. Pete moved to London as well, and apparently kept in better contact with James than they did. Sirius and Remus had both stuck with a smaller college one town over.

When James’ parents died, they saw each other at the funeral for the first time in years.

James had a smart red-head on his arm, and a ring on her finger. James never came back home after that.

James would call occasionally and the letters were fewer and farther between. A wedding announcement, and then about six months later, a baby announcement, and then a picture a few months later.

A congratulatory phone call that never connected, and Christmas card that just never managed to get sent.

And then suddenly they stopped. Sirius figured it was something they’d said or done, or that the two if them had finally, fully, grown apart.

Turns out, they’d died in a car crash. James, Lily, and Peter had all gone out on Halloween night.

Pete, who was supposed to the be designated driver, drove drunk. The car had crashed, killing both James and Lily, and sending Pete to jail for next twenty or so years.

The authorities, not having anyone else to turn to, gave Harry to Lily’s sister Petunia, a racist bitch if Sirius remembered the conversation after the Potter’s funeral right.

And that was where Harry stayed until somehow he wasn’t anymore.

It was evening when Harry came back, two weeks later.

Remus was working, but recognized the teen the same way Sirius had; he was the spitting image of James as they remembered him.

“Um, I’m looking for some guy?” Harry asked Remus and proceeded to describe Sirius.

"Are you Harry Potter?” He asked the teen, who reluctantly confirmed. Last names are hard to give when you’re on the street and so Remus thanks the teen. He then told him to wait a few, that Sirius was upstairs.

Remus goes to get them, and Sirius comes down wearing a grey sweater dress, dark blue leggings, and expertly applied make up.

Harry stammered, not sure how to react, before blurting out “You knew my parents?”

“Yeah, ” Sirius said and nodded to Remus. "We both did. What do you want to know?”

Green eyes wide in his dark face, Harry took a deep breath. “Everything.”


	3. Part 3

“ _Everything_ ,” _Harry_ _had_ _said_. And so that is what they told him.

They told Harry about the pranks the four of them would play; flooding a corridor, reporting every plant in the greenhouse, putting a playhouse together on the roof, and so many more.

They talk to Harry about his culture, about holidays spent with the Potters, and food made by his grandma.

Remus makes sure to mention how James was a complete tit for most of school. Sirius talks about how welcoming and accepting Fleamont and Effie were with their genderfluidity.

Sirius is the one to talk about losing contact with James, someone he’d once thought of as a brother. How life moved on, and he thought so had James...

It takes days to tell it all. Harry doesn’t come by every night, or stay for long. He talks about having to work, and refuses the bed. Remus and Sirius don’t force him, but they worry.

They have both have done the math, and know Harry is only 15, and know they’ll have to call Child Services soon. They know this is why he refuses to stay for long, despite his overwhelming need to know about his parents. Yet they can’t bring themselves to call.

And then one night Sirius opens the back door to toss the rubbish and finds Harry scrambling from the stoop; his eye is black, lip bleeding, and snow on his shoulders. At first Sirius is angry, and then they see how Harry is holding his ribs and favoring a leg.

“Inside. Now,” is all they’re able to force around the ball of fury inside them. Harry limps in, flinching from Sirius and refusing to take his eyes off him.

Sirius sees this, and flashes back to the night they left the Blacks. They straighten their bright red dress, and push black hair behind their ears. Taking a deep breath, they close and lock the door. “I’m sorry I snapped, Harry. Just... why didn’t you come inside?”

Harry shrugs and then winces. “You would’ve called them,” he says, voice empty.

Sirius almost asks, and then realizes Harry is talking about Child Services. “We don’t want to, that’s why we haven’t yet.” Sirius takes a step forward, but stops at the panic on Harry’s face. “What happened?” they asks as they move behind the counter to get ice.

Harry sighs and sinks down onto the couch. “I tried to go back. They didn’t like that much.”

Harry has never really talked about the Dursley’s and living there, but they had figured it was bad. Why else would a 15 year old be living and working on the streets in the dead of winter? “What did the Dursleys do?” Sirius asks and brings over a few bags of ice.

Harry startles and then groans when he places some ice on his ribs. “Called me a slut and a whore. They’re not wrong, you know.” Harry locks eyes with Sirius, as if expecting shock.

Sirius doesn’t react, instead handing him another bag of ice for his knee. “And? What happened next?”

“They said I wasn’t welcome in their home, like I ever was to begin with, and blocked me from my room. Did you know they are still getting a check for me? They hadn’t even told anyone I’m gone!” Harry balls his hands into fists and punches his leg. “It’s been months!”

“Seriously?” Sirius asks and they both smirk at the unintentional pun. “That’s some shite.”

“Yeah,” Harry says, closing his eyes and leaning his head back.

Sirius knows he can’t let Harry slip yet, not if he has a concussion. “Okay, but what about you? What happened to you?”

“I tried to get my stuff. Just some books and pictures. My jacket from last year...” Harry’s eyes are still closed and he seems to be drifting off.

Sirius hates to do it, but they touch Harry’s leg. “Harry, you can’t sleep yet. What else happened?”

“Dudley,” Harry says and sits up with a groan. “My cousin. Vernon pushed me down when I tried to get to me room, and I I hit Dudley on my way down. He started hitting and kicking me, saying they didn’t want a dirty- a dirty-“ Harry couldn’t finish, and Sirius wasn’t going to make him.

“It’s okay, you’re going to be okay, Harry,” Sirius says and stands up. “I’ve got to get Remus, I’ll be right over here.” Sirius walks over to the till and calls Remus’ phone. It takes a few rings to wake him up, but eventually Remus’ groggy voice come over the phone.

“Sirius?”

“Yes love. How’s your pain? I know it’s been bad...”

“It’s fine. What’s going on?” Remus’ voice hold no patience in it.

“It’s Harry, love. He’s downstairs...” Sirius doesn’t even hear the end of the call, just the pounding of feet down the stairs. Remus comes into view, breathing hard and face scrunched in pain. “Remus!” Sirius cries and rushes over to him, puttinghis husband’s arms over their shoulder.

“I wasn’t going anywhere, Sirius didn’t even leave me alone,” Harry’s voice calls over the store and both adults look at him. “What’s wrong with you?”

Sirius can feel Remus stiffen, and they start to answer. “There’s no need to be rude, Harry. Remus-“

“Remus can talk for himself, thank you,” Remus says and sits down on the couch opposite Harry. “I have a lot of things ‘wrong’ with me, Harry. The foremost being fibromyalgia, which means I don’t have a lot of energy for things some days. Now, what’s going on?”

Sirius tells Remus the story, and waits while he thinks. Remus looks at Harry, and purses his lips. “What would you say to living with us, Harry?”

“What? You don’t let under 16’s stay here. Everyone knows that,” Harry says.

“Do they now?” Remus says, and raises an eyebrow. “We’ve have to do this properly, with Child Services and all that, though.”

Harry is quiet for a long time. So long that Sirius and Remus worry that he was going to say no and bolt. Instead, Harry looks up, trying to hide his emotions, and tells them to call Child Services.


End file.
